If your favorite radio station sounds a little different Tuesday, it’s for a good reason.
It’s the annual Hungerthon fund-raiser for WhyHunger, whose grass-roots support network connects communities to food-related resources and promotes sustainable food systems.
It also maintains the only national hotline directing people to local food resource centers.
Hungerthon has relied heavily on radio stations since it was cofounded in 1975 (as World Hunger Year) by the late Harry Chapin and Bill Ayres, who remains WhyHunger’s executive director.
Stations joining the fund-raiser Tuesday include WFAN (660 AM), WCBS-AM (880), WINS (1010 AM), WCBS-FM (101.1), WOR (710 AM) and much of SiriusXM satellite service.
Most drives will start at 5 or 6 a.m. and run all day.
Hungerthon takes direct donations, which can be made through hungerthon.org. Premiums include T-shirts and shirts with drawings of John Lennon or the iconic Bruce Springsteen “Born to Run” cover picture.
Hungerthon also runs an auction with extensive sports and music memorabilia.
New York sports teams are offering packages that range from great seats to serving as a Knicks pregame bellboy.
Music items include a drumhead signed by all the current Allman Brothers, signed Springsteen items, a meeting with Jason Aldean and a signed Barry Manilow piano bench.
Most auction items close Dec. 10.
All the proceeds fund WhyHunger — whose mission, Ayres says, is unfortunately as great as ever.
“Forty-nine million Americans struggle to find their next meal,” he says, “including 16 million children. In New York, 2.6 million people are food-insecure.”
The mission also may face challenges, he says, from the incoming Congress, some of whose members have expressed skepticism about government programs like SNAP (food stamps) and school nutrition.
WhyHunger avidly supports private and community programs, Ayres says, but “the truth is that government programs serve more people than all private programs combined.”